The Penguin Bar

• Dollar should be replaced as international standard, U.N. report says – http://bit.ly/bIz8uh #
• VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV – http://bit.ly/ajM6d6 #
• @zippermoom Agreed. I quoted the headline from the article; those weren't my words. in reply to zippermoom #
• Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up http://bit.ly/comi72 #
• Fast Gas Bullet from Cosmic Blast N49 [APOD] http://bit.ly/9Xm4mA #

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• Philip Linden aka Philip Rosedale speaks at Second Life SL7B #SL http://bit.ly/dzwQb2 #
• @carthalis yeah it kinda sorta is. I managed to log on but things are… problematic in reply to carthalis #
• Conyers throws in with Grayson, co-sponsors ‘War is Making You Poor Act’ http://bit.ly/a8FicR #
• FOX News misrepresents unemployment figures http://bit.ly/aZTQTF #
• Prehistoric man went to the movies, say researchers http://bit.ly/cdyIR4 #

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• LHC smashes beam collision record http://bit.ly/bzSXcM #
• The Third Depression – Paul Krugman http://nyti.ms/cRAhFs #
• World's First Same-Sex Marriage by Head of Government http://bit.ly/b5BvTY #
• Reality vs. Theology http://bit.ly/9MsaG7 #
• Inspectors find safety flaws where airline food is prepared http://bit.ly/cKKrRP #
• Goce satellite views Earth's gravity in high definition http://bit.ly/aU3FsF #

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Recessions are common; depressions are rare. As far as I can tell, there were only two eras in economic history that were widely described as “depressions” at the time: the years of deflation and instability that followed the Panic of 1873 and the years of mass unemployment that followed the financial crisis of 1929-31.

Neither the Long Depression of the 19th century nor the Great Depression of the 20th was an era of nonstop decline — on the contrary, both included periods when the economy grew. But these episodes of improvement were never enough to undo the damage from the initial slump, and were followed by relapses.

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense.

And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world — most recently at last weekend’s deeply discouraging G-20 meeting — governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.

via Op-Ed Columnist – The Third Depression – NYTimes.com.

• Pope finds it 'deplorable' that Belgian police are actually investigating child rape cases http://bit.ly/bEG9wk #
• King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria [apparently] http://bit.ly/9yH3qN #
• Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades, New Data Show http://bit.ly/9rvFz4 #

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The new CBO data — the most comprehensive data available on changes in incomes and taxes for different income groups — also show the following:

* In 2007, the share of after-tax income going to the top 1 percent hit its highest level (17.1 percent) since 1979, while the share going to the middle one-fifth of Americans shrank to its lowest level during this period (14.1 percent).

* Between 1979 and 2007, average after-tax incomes for the top 1 percent rose by 281 percent after adjusting for inflation — an increase in income of $973,100 per household — compared to increases of 25 percent ($11,200 per household) for the middle fifth of households and 16 percent ($2,400 per household) for the bottom fifth.

* If all groups’ after-tax incomes had grown at the same percentage rate over the 1979-2007 period, middle-income households would have received an additional $13,042 in 2007 and families in the bottom fifth would have received an additional $6,010.

* In 2007, the average household in the top 1 percent had an income of $1.3 million, up $88,800 just from the prior year; this $88,800 gain is well above the total 2007 income of the average middle-income household ($55,300).

via Income Gaps Between Very Rich and Everyone Else More Than Tripled In Last Three Decades, New Data Show — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

• Researchers Discover Cheap Metal That Generates Hydrogen from Water [watch the oil industry kill this too] http://bit.ly/b7mXQA #
• Federal judge who blocked oil drilling ban owns BP stock http://bit.ly/amw40m #
• Jindal declares day of prayer over spill, but hasn't called up the Natl Guard http://bit.ly/dv97kM #
• Deaths of Children in Hot Cars Hit Grim Record http://bit.ly/9aQTIn #

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• @philiplinden Welcome back! I think you made the majority of #SL residents VERY happy. [Can Viewer 2 be nuked?] in reply to philiplinden #
• U.S. Spends The Most On Health Care, Yet Gets Least http://n.pr/bXmB3K #
• The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class – David Michael Green http://bit.ly/9Ne75r #

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• Is the GOP deliberately trying to sabotage the economy? http://bit.ly/atVYW8 #
• FOX News' tipping point http://bit.ly/bnU96F #

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• At least 42 dead, 115,000 homeless in Brazil flooding – http://bit.ly/cd85YL #
• Blow Up the Well to Save the Gulf [NYT OpEd - the first para is... interesting] http://nyti.ms/cJJdc4 #
• Sunset from the International Space Station [APOD] http://bit.ly/cQb3y2 #

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